For the purpose of delivering data to a client, it is known to use the approach of streaming data. Typically, the streamed data include media data such as audio data and/or video data.
In this connection, it is known to use a file streaming approach, according to which data segments of a stream are delivered to a client using unicast requests and responses. Here, the data segments may be files including the media data, e.g. in the form of MPEG-TS packets (MPEG: Moving Picture Experts Group, TS: Transport Stream). The data segments may also have the form of individual media files including the media data, e.g. 3 gp files as defined in the 3GPP Technical Specification 26.244 or of MP4 files as defined in ISO/IEC 14496-12 and -14. For example, the stream may correspond to a movie of about one hour total playing time and the data segments may be media files corresponding to consecutive portions of the movie, which each have about a few seconds playing time.
In the file streaming approach, a descriptive file is provided which comprises a list of delivery source identifiers for unicast delivery of the data segments. An example of such a descriptive file is the playlist file according to the HTTP Live Streaming protocol (HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol). In this case, the delivery source identifiers are provided in the form of URIs (Uniform Resource Identifiers).
When applying the file streaming approach in a mobile communication network, there will typically be a plurality of streaming clients in different mobile terminals which continuously request and receive the data segments, which in turn may result in a significant usage of network resources, e.g. available bandwidth for communication between network devices or for communication between network devices and mobile terminals.
Accordingly, there is a need for techniques which allow for an efficient use of network resources when streaming data in a mobile communication network.